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☆ Elon Musk's private jet has landed in Beijing - Reuters witness
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIJING, May 30 (Reuters) - A private jet used by Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk has arrived in Beijing, according to a Reuters witness. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Musk had arrived in China. China is Tesla's second-largest market after the U.S., and the Shanghai plant is the electric car maker's largest production hub. The jet with its identifying tail number could be seen at Beijing Capital International Airport on Tuesday, according to the Reuters witness. While his plane was en route to China, Musk tweeted about advances in China's space program, which aims to land a crew on the moon before 2030.

☆ Stalled Sister City Plan Reveals New German Wariness of China
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Christopher F. Schuetze | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

City officials in the northern German port of Kiel were flattered this year when the Chinese port of Qingdao — about 40 times its size — proposed partnering up as a sister city. The two cities had a history of cooperation dating to when the Germans helped their Chinese counterparts develop a sailing venue for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Almost too good, in fact, for security experts, who noted other, less innocent similarities. Kiel, home to about 250,000, hosts much of Germany’s Baltic naval fleet, Germany’s equivalent of the Navy SEALs, military research facilities and big shipbuilders making, among other things, six brand-new, state-of-the-art submarines. Qingdao, a city of more than nine million, is home to China’s North Sea fleet, a marine research academy and China’s main submariners school, which specializes in submarine hunting.

But Nvidia has created variants of its chips for the Chinese market that are slowed down to meet U.S. rules. Even the slowed Nvidia chips represent an improvement for Chinese firms. The back-and-forth between government and industry exposes the U.S. challenge of slowing China's progress in high tech without hurting U.S. companies. Chip industry sources said that was an effective action. Some in the AI industry believe that is still plenty of speed.

☆ China flies combat drone around Taiwan; US Navy plane transits strait
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

This month, China staged war games around Taiwan after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles. TAIWAN STRAIT MISSIONSThe tensions around Taiwan have alarmed Washington and its allies, which have repeatedly expressed concern at China's behaviour and called for no forced change in the status quo. The United States, and occasionally its allies, have routinely sent warships and aircraft through the Taiwan Strait in recent years. "The aircraft's transit of the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific." China said last year that it has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait, and said it was "a false claim" to refer to the strait as international waters.

BEIJING/TAIPEI, April 11 (Reuters) - China's latest military drills near Taiwan show it is serious about being able to cut off the democratically ruled island in a conflict, analysts said, as Beijing said its aircraft carriers could "shatter" defences from the east. 1) Carrier OperationsMany analysts noted the jets flying off the Shandong aircraft carrier, which took up position east of Taiwan, about 230 kilometres (143 miles) south of Japan's Miyajima island. The aim of the drills was to show that they could encircle Taiwan in a blockade and deter foreign powers from intervening, Zhao said. 3) Precision TargetingThe PLA also said it carried out virtual simulations showing how its forces could execute targeted missile attacks on Taiwan. Japan's military said in a briefing on Tuesday that it was assessing China's manoeuvres around Taiwan, but described them as "without question, serious training".

TAIPEI, April 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan officials and defence analysts are bracing for intensifying pressure on the "median line" that has for decades helped keep the peace in the Taiwan Strait as China begins inspecting civilian shipping across the waterway. "As long as they are ships hoisting our country's flag they are all a part of our territory," he said. Taiwan's military will not allow China to "unilaterally" board Taiwanese ships, he said. A senior Taiwan official familiar with security planning said Taiwan would not allow China to board ships in the Taiwan Strait and that Taiwan's coast guard and military would jointly respond if China made a move to do so. Chinese state television broadcast live pictures of the Haixun 6 on patrol, including shaky footage of a Taiwanese coast guard ship shadowing it in the distance.

"We are taking notes from Zelenskiy," a senior Taiwan security official said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's strong presence on social media. "We can't even fix sea cables on our own," the official said. "What if one day all 14 of Taiwan's undersea cables connecting us to the outside world break? Taiwan's military has long prepared back-up plans, including a fibre-optic network for communications within Taiwan, satellites, high-frequency radio, and microwave systems. "So the first step (for China) - with about 99 percent likelihood - is to cut our sea cables," Huang said.

China's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the researchers' findings. Reuters could not determine how closely the conclusions reflect the thinking among China's military leaders. A U.S. defence official told Reuters that despite differences with the situation in Taiwan, the Ukraine war offered insights for China. The conflict has also forged an apparent consensus among Chinese researchers that drone warfare merits greater investment. Beyond the battlefield, the work has covered the information war, which the researchers conclude was won by Ukraine and its allies.

☆ China aims to launch nearly 13,000 satellites to 'suppress' Elon Musk's Starlink, researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Stephen Chen | South China Morning Post | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Chinese satellites could be equipped with an anti-Starlink payload to carry out various missions, such as conducting "close-range, long-term surveillance of Starlink satellites," they said. "The Starlink satellites may use their orbital manoeuvrability to actively hit and destroy nearby targets in space," the researchers said. China plans to build more powerful radar systems powered by new technology to identify and track Starlink satellites, they said. The Ukrainian military has used Starlink services effectively against Russian forces. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on February 18 that the US government had talked to Musk about the use of Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine, but did not elaborate.

☆ Explainer: What we know and don't know about the Chinese balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Here's what we know, and don't know, about the balloon that has triggered a dramatic diplomatic dispute between the two powers:HOW BIG IS IT? WAS IT A WEATHER BALLOON? Other companies that develop stratospheric balloon systems include U.S. space tourism firm World View and French firm CNIM Air Space. AIR is particularly keen on stratospheric balloon technology and has posted several articles on its WeChat account about Aerostar. read moreWhile analysts did not yet know the size of the Chinese balloon fleet, U.S. officials have spoken of dozens of missions since 2018 across five continents, with some targeting Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

"(The balloon can) induce and mobilise the enemy's air defence system, providing the conditions for the implementation of electronic reconnaissance, assessment of air defence systems' early warning detection and operational response capabilities," the researchers wrote. Balloons are also used for scientific purposes such as weather monitoring, including by the likes of the China Meteorological Administration. "In response to the growing threat posed by ground-based air defence systems to air attack forces, it is necessary to use cheap air balloons to create active and passive interference to effectively suppress enemy air defence early warning systems and cover air attack forces to carry out their missions," it argued. TECHNOLOGY PURCHASESChinese military units and state-run research institutes have bought high-altitude balloons and related technology in the past two years, a Reuters analysis of government tenders shows, though the documents are heavily redacted. The Aerospace Information Research Institute, part of the official Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is among state institutions to have shown interest in balloons, frequently publishing articles about high-altitude balloons on an official WeChat account.

[1/4] Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto poses for a picture during an interview with Reuters, in Rome, Italy, December 16, 2022. Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, a co-founder of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, said Rome would make a final decision on how much to invest in the multi-billion-dollar project after more details had been defined. Crosetto said there should be no bar on joining forces with the rival European programme, adding that the GCAP should also aim to find new partners, especially within Europe. Italy has never disclosed details of its shipments, but Crosetto confirmed that Kyiv had requested air-defence systems, including the Franco-Italian SAMP/T. He added that Italy was also open to suggestions for joint procurement by the EU Defence Agency.

☆ U.S. imposes sanctions on military procurement network aiding Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. Treasury also designated family members of Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as individuals that it said worked as financial facilitators in Suleiman's network. The U.S. Treasury blacklisted Milandr, a Russian microelectronics company that Washington says is part of Moscow's military research and development structure. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned major military industrial firms in Russia and the Commerce Department has cut off exports of American-made components and U.S. technologies that have been used in some of Russia's military hardware. Russia has managed to procure drones from Iran that have been used to attack cities and power infrastructure in Ukraine. Iranian military entities and industries are already under heavy U.S. sanctions over Tehran's nuclear development program.

☆ Chinese military scientists simulated a nuclear blast in space to knock out satellite networks like Starlink
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Stephen Chen | South China Morning Post | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Chinese scientists conducted a computer experiment of a nuclear blast in space. This could render nuclear weapons ineffective and too dangerous for an anti-satellite mission. Chinese military researchers worry that these satellites could provide communication services to rivals or slam into China's space station or satellites, acting as "suicide agents" to disable Chinese space infrastructure during a war. Some Chinese researchers have therefore proposed hitting a few carefully selected targets that could produce a small amount of space debris. "Whether it is legal to use nuclear weapons as a defence measure against a hypersonic weapon attack remains a subject of debate in the research community," he added.

☆ Putin is running low on long-range precision weapons, and he's wasting his dwindling supply terrorizing Ukrainians in cities far from the front lines, war experts say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Russian forces unleashed a barrage of long-range precision weapons on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure this week. Russian forces, he said, do not have the capability to do this "three or four days a week for the next two years. Bombing civilians is 'unlikely' to break Ukraine's will to fightIt's unclear exactly how many long-range munitions Russian forces have left in the arsenal. Getty ImagesInsider was unable to independently verify the total number of long-range munitions left in the hands of the Russian forces. Gentile said that if Russian forces want to strike targets deeper in Ukraine, they don't really have a choice beyond long-range munitions.

☆ Putin's nuclear threats are stirring fears of a nightmare scenario. Here's what's in his arsenal and what could happen if he orders the unthinkable.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( John Haltiwanger | Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

The use of a nuclear weapon is "directly tied to Russia's fate on the battlefield," one expert recently told Insider. Putin, who claimed to have placed Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on high alert just days later, has continued to remind the world of Russia's nuclear might in the months since. There are tactical nuclear weapons that are more than four times as powerful. At best, a single tactical nuclear weapon could destroy about a dozen tanks, Podvig said. Kristensen said during the ACA webinar on Tuesday that he believes it's unlikely that Russia employs nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

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